Born in Vienna in 1956, Thomas Riebl has pursued an acclaimed international career as soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. A laureate of the ARD (Munich) and Naumburg (New York) competitions, he has performed at leading venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Wiener Musikverein, with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony and Vienna Symphony. He has collaborated with renowned artists such as András Schiff, Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, Sabine Meyer and Jessey Norman. From 1983 to 2024, he was professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where many of his students went on to win international prizes and hold prominent positions. Since 2003, he has served as artistic director of the Internationale Sommerakademie Bad Leonfelden. A pioneer of the five-string tenor viola, he has premiered numerous works and recorded for labels including RCA, Pan Classics and Hyperion.